Why Abisko is the Best Place in Europe to See Northern Lights

We frequently receive emails, to the tune of several each week, asking where the best place in Europe to see Northern Lights is. The Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights as they are more commonly called, truly is one of the greatest natural phenomena on Earth and we absolutely think seeing them should be on every traveler’s bucket list. As we encourage in our most popular post ever, 10 Things No One Ever Tells You About the Northern Lights, you should pick your destination based on the other activities you want to do as there is never any guarantee you’ll actually see the Northern Lights. But if the true draw for you is to watch the green curtain billow across the sky, we’re here to tell you why we think Abisko is the best place in Europe to see Northern Lights.

Where is the best place to see Northern Lights?

The fact of the matter is that there is no easy answer to the question “Where is the best place to see Northern Lights?” That question isn’t as black and white as it may appear. Northern Lights most typically occur in the aurora zone between 65° and 72° North; however, big geomagnetic storms can push that zone lower. This is what happens when the Northern Lights are seen in places like Scotland or Michigan.

A lot of conditions all have to line up perfectly for Northern Lights to occur and be seen. When Northern Lights appear, they do so in what is called the auroral oval. This is a 3 – 6 degree-wide band that can stretch hundreds of kilometers east to west. So, if Northern Lights are appearing in one town located at 68° North, then they are appearing in many more towns also located at 68° North. You just might not be able to see them because of weather conditions, namely cloud cover.

That means that some places are good places to see Northern Lights because they are perfectly positioned in the aurora zone and have auroras more frequently. Other places are good because they are easily accessible, like Reykjavik with direct flights from a number of European and US destinations. Some places are good because they are so scenic that Northern Lights just make an already spectacular setting utterly phenomenal.

Why Abisko?

Abisko is the best place in Europe to see Northern Lights because it has conditions that line up and make the Northern Lights appear on average 159 nights (of the approximately 212 nights that are dark enough for Auroras to be seen) each year, according to scientists. Abisko is known as a Polar desert and is located in the middle of the auroral zone at 68° North and 200 kilometers above the Arctic Circle. Protected by the peaks of the mountains surrounding Abisko National Park and coupled with the fact that Abisko receives the least amount of precipitation than anywhere else in Sweden, it statistically has the most nights of clear skies of anywhere else in Europe.

Dark, clear nights is one key ingredient in the recipe to a successful Northern Lights sighting. That Abisko also lies in the middle of the aurora zone means it also is statistically most often located in the 3 – 6 degree-wide latitude that the auroral oval occurs in. In the simplest terms possible, if you stay in Abisko for three nights you have an 80% chance of Northern Lights making an appearance.

Northern Lights selfie!

The Reality of Seeing the Northern Lights

That’s a whole lot of numbers I just tossed around, and as we’ve said in every single response we’ve ever given to anyone asking us what their chances of seeing the Northern Lights is, it’s like rolling the dice in a game of craps. We spent three nights in Abisko recently and the Northern Lights appeared on two of our three nights there. By comparison, I spent 22 nights in Iceland in September and the Northern Lights appeared on four of those 22 nights there.

Our very first night in Abisko was also the coldest we spent with temperatures dipping to -25°C (-13°F) and a slight wind. Just a quick walk to scout spots to shoot and our nose hairs were frozen, my face was stinging, and I had a massive headache while walking in to the wind within seconds. We’d also just spent 12 hours traveling door-to-door. I was honestly in bed by 8pm and because I was too tired to put the effort in to bundling up and going back out in to that cold, we missed a Northern Lights display that was dancing faintly in the sky by 8:30pm and continued until around 10pm.

Our second night was a frustratingly long night of waiting out completely cloudy skies for five hours at the Aurora Sky Station on the mountain above the village of Abisko. At 11:30pm we gave up that the sky was going to clear and made our way down to the village again. We spent several more hours setting the alarm clock to check before finally giving in at 2am.

Our third and final night in Abisko was turning out to be frustrating as well. We went out on a Northern Lights nightly photo tour with Lights Over Lapland and the crystal clear skies were promising. We spent three hours photographing the mountains and Sami structures around an outdoor museum while waiting for the Northern Lights. Again, we finally gave in at 11:30pm and our group headed back to the hotel. Tim and I had just changed into our pajamas and popped our heads out just to check one more time. There directly above us was the white wispy cloud-like band that is the beginning of Northern Lights.

Sometimes Northern Lights can last 15 minutes and other times they can dance around the sky for hours. You just never know, so I threw on my coat and boots, grabbed my hat and gloves and was out the door. At first I thought it was going to be a quick show, but waiting outside paid off. The Northern Lights finally danced across the sky and continued to do so for an incredibly cold three hours I spent outside in not much more than a pair of pajamas – my nice warm Icelandic wool thermals sitting inside a hotel room.

Two days later I got an email from one of other couples that had been in our Lights Over Lapland tour group that night. They had taken a cab back to their hostel in the village right after we’d all come back to the STF Abisko Mountain Station and gone to bed. Our photos, which they’d come across on Instagram, were the only Aurora sighting they had for their trip.

I tell this tale because I think most people think they they just need to go to a destination where you can typically witness the Northern Lights and it’s as easy as that. Sometimes it is because the Northern Lights happen to appear exactly during a scheduled tour or you’re lucky enough to be staying at a hotel that offers a Northern Lights wake-up call. But the reality is that Northern Lights photographers spend a lot of long, chilly nights doing nothing other than waiting for a natural phenomenon to occur so that they can capture it on film.

Northern Lights Photo Expeditions

Lights Over Lapland offers 5-day Northern Lights photo expeditions with expert photography instructions from owner and world-famous Northern Lights photographer Chad Blakely. We have gotten to know Chad and Lights Over Lapland over the years online before spending a bit of time with him in Abisko. He’s a passionate Northern Lights photographer and his multi-day photo expeditions have a great success rate with 98% of his guests having seen and photographed the Northern Lights on at least one night of the trip. Lights Over Lapland’s expert low-light photography instruction will help you to perfectly capture auroras in the best place in Europe to see Northern Lights.

Know Before You Go

Where To Stay

The Abisko Turiststation is located in Abisko National Park away from the light pollution of the village and the best hotel in Abisko.

Our Aurora Odyssey trip to Swedish Lapland was provided by Abisko Aurora with the support of Lights Over Lapland in order to bring you this story. However, Luxe Adventure Traveler maintains full editorial control of the content published on this site. As always, all thoughts, opinions, and enthusiasm for travel are entirely our own. This article contains affiliate links. When you book on Booking.com through our affiliate site, we earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.

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Why Abisko is the Best Place in Europe to See Northern Lights

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About Jennifer Dombrowski

Jennifer Dombrowski is an independent travel publisher and an American expat who has lived in Bordeaux, France since 2016. She previously lived in Northern Italy in a small village near Venice for seven years where she fell in love with wine and wine tourism. She is an award-winning travel writer. She is also a travel correspondent on Traveling on the American Forces Radio Network. Luxe Adventure Traveler was named one of the top travel blogs to watch by the Huffington Post and TripAdvisor, and has been featured by top publications such as National Geographic, CNN, Buzzfeed, and Business Insider. Jennifer's photography has also been featured on publications such as USA Today and Travel + Leisure and on the Travel Channel.

How the photographs look is often different than what it looks like to the naked eye. The camera can do long exposures to bring in more of the light and our eyes can’t. These particular photos were only shot on 3 or 5 second exposures though because of the full moon, so what we photographed is actually pretty close to how it looked to the naked eye.

Reykjavik is such a hard place to catch the Northern Lights. There is a ton of light pollution since 60% of the entire population lives in the capital. The weather on Iceland’s south coast is also the rainiest and most unpredictable of anywhere in Iceland. We’ve seen the Northern Lights in Keflavik, but had the best luck in Iceland in the north.

I went northern lights chasing in Rovaniemi and Iceland in January 2017. On my first night 3 January 2017 I went out in a bus from Rovaniemi and climbed up a snow hill with the group and, yes, the lights came out and there were a lot of white streaks and bright stars. Later a smallish light green patch appeared and suddenly the pale green whooshed right across the sky and then broke into rectangles. On my second night I stayed in an ice igloo at Arctic Snow Hotel in Rovaniemi. At about 8 pm a wide white stripe was across the sky. About 2 hours later the bright greens appeared and I saw a downward spiral happen and then part of that whooshed across the sky with the borders you see in photos (different shades of green). There was also a very bright green/yellow light narrow on the ground and widening out at the top. I tried to take a photo but my iphone had frozen in the minus 37 temperature. The lights also came out at that hotel on 2 January and 4 January 2017 but I wasn’t there.
Tip – When I was there beside the ice hotel and towards the frozen lake they had built a snow ramp up and I think they had a little fence there. When I came out to check what was happening (from the small room at back of reception and large restaurant where breakfast is served with the open fire) and walked towards the lake I looked up and couldn’t see anything but as I walked towards the lake someone called my name and said to come up the snow ramp and when I did I was shocked to see the bright green lights and what I have described above. So the point of all this is I am not sure you would see it from the position of your glass igloo. They do have aurora alerts but you have to walk around yourself. I also went to Iceland for six nights straight after and on my last two nights I saw non-moving wide green band that went for kilometres and we got to a viewing spot and you could see the lights as if on stage waiting to perform but they did not. I went from Grindavic with Travice in a heated 4 wheel drive so I didn’t have to get out while searching. I would have if it had been spectacular. I spent a lot of time last year trying to work out where to go and chose places with other interesting activities so it would not be time and money wasted on a long trip from Australia. So having been blessed to see one spectacular display which should be enough to satisfy me, I am bemused to find myself trying to decide where to go next to try and see the northern lights.

You make a really good point that people think you will see them all over the entire sky like stars, but that isn’t necessarily the case. Northern Lights will start in the northerly direction. Locals also see them so often, that they will know which direction to point you to look so it’s always good to ask.

And we agree. We haven’t specifically stayed in the glass igloos there in Finland, but we have stayed in other similar type accommodations like the bubbles and such. We think they’re really convenient for keeping an eye on conditions, but you don’t necessarily see the Northern Lights right from your bed. It’s always good to have a periodic look around outside when keeping watch for the Aurora.

Thanks for sharing your experience Don! It’s true that there just isn’t a guarantee ever of seeing the Northern Lights. Sometimes when all the conditions line up, you still don’t see them. It’s why the Northern Lights remain nature’s phenomenon.

Thanks Katie! 2015 has already been an amazing season with many Northern Lights photographers and tour providers saying these has been some of the best displays they’ve ever seen. Maybe there really is something to all that hub-bub about the solar cycle. Hope you make it there this year!

That’s such a bummer, especially when you have clear skies! It’s almost more frustrating than when there is cloud cover you are hoping will clear up. I guess that mystery is what adds to the allure of the Northern Lights and makes them so special. Even on a clear night, all of the other conditions necessary to make the Northern Lights visible also have to line up. Hope you get to see them one day!

What can a person do during the day in Abisko while waiting for nightfall to see the lights? Your article mentions to head for a destination rather than the lights so you won´t be overly disappointed if you don’t see the lights. However Abisko seems to be in the middle of nowhere so what do most hunters do during the day (kindof on a low budget though!)

There’s plenty to do in Abisko; however, a Northern Lights trip isn’t really a low budget trip in any destination. You can go dog sledding, Abisko has a ski resort where you can ski, there’s ice climbing, you can take an excursion to Norway, go snowmobiling or you can take the train to Kiruna and visit the Ice Hotel to name a few options.

What time of year was it that you visited Abisko? We have from Dec 31 to January 6, 2017 and I am trying to decide between Tromso and Abisko. I was looking at the average weather in Abisko for our dates and it appears there is a possibility of cloud cover.
If there is only a slight chance of catching the Northern Lights, I wonder if I should just go to Iceland instead and have lots of other things to do? When you were nt waiting for the light show in Abisko, did you have plenty of other activities?

Thanks for any insight! And thank you for such useful info on your blog!

We were in Abisko the first week of January and we were in Tromso the first week of March. The thing is that with the Arctic, it’s impossible to predict the weather and it changes from year to year because of a lot of factors. We were in Abisko specifically for a Northern Lights trip, so we didn’t mind resting during the short daylight hours as we’d be awake the better part of the long night to shoot the Northern Lights. There are still things to do, though admittedly not as much to do as there is in Iceland. Some of the things you can do are take day trips to the Ice Hotel and Narvik, Norway. Things like ice climbing and snowmobiling in Abisko National Park are also available.

It really just depends on the what you want out of the trip. If you’re looking for an almost guarantee of seeing the Northern Lights, Abisko is the choice. If you want a variety of things to do and breathtaking landscapes, Iceland is the better choice.

It’s impossible to answer your questions because it’s impossible to predict the weather. Historical weather shows that January tends to have about 15 days or roughly half the month that precipitation falls. However, the weather changes so fast in the Arctic that you could have heavy snowfall and clear skies all inside of an hour. Since it is dark for more than 18 hours of the day, your chances are pretty good of seeing the Northern Lights if you spend at least 3 nights.

Hey Jennifer,
great informative on the lights… i’m from India and planning a trip durning dec 2017 sometime after the 15… need your (we are a group of 4 adults and 2 kids – 12 and 8 yrs old)
1. experienced advice of visibility of the lights in abisko (i understand theres no guarantee – but the chances – had travelled to iceland in April 2017 – but did not get to see the lights – hence this plan now!!)
2. best way to travel from Stockholm
3.suggestion for hotels or homestays
4. must to things ..
5. any other info to help me plan my trip..
appreciate all the help and a huge thank u in advance
regards

Traveling in April is a bit late in the Aurora season, though sometimes still possible to see late season displays. Traveling in December is right during the season, but the Arctic destinations receive the most snowfall in December and January. There is never any guarantee, but generally if you spend at least 3 nights in Abisko, you have about an 80% chance of seeing the Northern Lights.

As we explained, Abisko has the best chances of seeing the Northern Lights with at least a 3-night stay at around 80% chance of viewing them at least one of the nights. In Abisko, you can do snowmobiling, dog sledding, visit or stay overnight in the Ice Hotel, visit the Aurora Sky Station and all the other same activities that are available basically anywhere in Lapland.

The only difference is that Abisko is a village and much more remote than staying someplace like Tromso, where you will need to get out of the city each night for optimum Northern Lights viewing opportunity. Somewhere like Tromso offers many more restaurant and city activities though. So you just need to decide what the priority is – having easy access to many restaurant options, shopping, ect or the ability to literally step outside your door and see the Northern Lights.

In both cases of these destinations, you’ll need to book excursions for the activities like dog sledding, snowmobiling and the like.

Based on this blog post and further research on the information provided here, my husband and I travelled to Abisko in February 2017 for four nights. We booked with Lights Over Lapland and saw the northern lights every single night. Some nights they were stronger than others but we were very happy we went to Abisko. Around the same time, we had friends who were visiting Iceland and Tromso in Norway who also saw the lights. However, I would still take the high probability of being able to see them in Abisko over other places that may have some other pros. An added bonus is that Abisko is very charming and is not overrun by tourists since there is literally very limited capacity for the number of visitors that can stay overnight. We booked other activities for the day time and had a wonderful time. Our trip was bookended by 2-day stays in Stockholm. I highly recommend booking with Lights Over Lapland, and visiting Abisko.
Good luck!

What an amazing article.
So we have a choice of visiting Abisko in December last week 201i combining it with lapland else econdweek of February 2019.
So I had a few queations:
1. What would u suggest is a better time to do the northern lights?
2. How many days do you suggest as minimum stay so we have a good chance of spotting them.
3. Some of the comments mentions that NL will be diminishing soon. Would 2019 Feb still be a great time to visit it or would it be just a few stro pea of green here and there kinda viewing.

I\’m truly look g for the magical auroral experience and don\’t mind spending more days or walking that extra mile to view it

If we could choose between December and February, we’d choose February only because the majority of snow in the Arctic falls in the months of November and December. That means more unpredictable weather and cloud cover.

Staying a minimum of 3 nights in Abisko typically gives people an 80% chance of seeing the Northern Lights during their stay. Obviously, the longer you stay the better. But between one full week in Abisko and Lapland, you should see the Northern Lights at least once.

The Northern Lights are not diminishing. In fact, they’re even there in summertime but cannot be observed because this part of the world experiences nearly 24 hours of daylight. The strength and colors that the Northern Lights appear are entirely dependent on solar activity. Increased solar activity produces stronger Northern Lights. It’s impossible to predict if, when and what intensity you could see the Northern Lights. Beyond planning a trip during the Northern Lights season and being diligent about looking for them, there’s nothing you can do to guarantee you’ll see them. That’s why we really encourage people to plan Northern Lights trips for the destination and other activities, treating the Northern Lights as a bonus if you do get to see them.

Hi there. Great article and thanks for taking the time to answer everybody’s questions.
Looking to do 3-4 weeks. Originally was set on Tromsø, however after reading this article leaning towards Abisko. My questions are: ny info on getting from Tromsø to Abisko should I decid to split my time and also any tips on navigating these countries asa Vegan?

Meet Jennifer & Tim

We’re Jennifer and Tim. We’re professional travel writers and photographers who love adventure and wine, so we often try to combine the two. By day, you’ll find us out on some crazy adventure like snorkeling in Iceland in winter or on a long distance hut-to-hut hike in the Dolomites, but by night, we’re creatures of comfort. If you’re looking for a travel blog about a long-term around-the-world journey, how to travel on $50 a day or less or traveling with kids, Luxe Adventure Traveler isn’t it. Our award-winning travel blog is all about heart pumping adventures, world class accommodations and luxury experiences. Read more...

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